Kansas City Royals (34-47, fifth in the AL Central) vs. Tampa Bay Rays (44-33, second in the AL East)
St. Petersburg, Florida; Thursday, 12:10 p.m. EDT
PITCHING PROBABLES: Royals: Seth Lugo (3-4, 3.69 ERA, 1.35 WHIP, 66 strikeouts); Rays: Casey Legumina (2-1, 3.45 ERA, 1.34 WHIP, 23 strikeouts)
LINE: Rays -142, Royals +117; over/under is 8 1/2 runs
BOTTOM LINE: The Tampa Bay Rays play the Kansas City Royals after Yandy Diaz had four hits against the Royals on Wednesday.
Tampa Bay has gone 27-12 at home and 44-33 overall. The Rays have a 12-3 record in games when they hit at least two home runs.
Kansas City is 15-25 in road games and 34-47 overall. The Royals have the eighth-ranked team slugging percentage in the AL at .397.
The matchup Thursday is the fourth meeting between these teams this season.
TOP PERFORMERS: Diaz leads the Rays with a .332 batting average, and has 13 doubles, a triple, 12 home runs, 32 walks and 51 RBIs. Jonathan Aranda is 14 for 39 with a home run and five RBIs over the last 10 games.
Bobby Witt Jr. leads the Royals with a .294 batting average, and has 19 doubles, a triple, 10 home runs, 35 walks and 32 RBIs. Carter Jensen is 16 for 41 with two home runs and eight RBIs over the last 10 games.
LAST 10 GAMES: Rays: 4-6, .259 batting average, 3.41 ERA, outscored by one run
Royals: 6-4, .293 batting average, 4.86 ERA, outscored opponents by 15 runs
INJURIES: Rays: Jesse Scholtens: 15-Day IL (wrist), Gavin Lux: 60-Day IL (shoulder), Steven Wilson: 60-Day IL (back), Manuel Rodriguez: 60-Day IL (elbow), Jon Heasley: 60-Day IL (elbow), Jake Fraley: 10-Day IL (groin), Ryan Pepiot: 60-Day IL (hip), Edwin Uceta: 60-Day IL (shoulder)
Royals: James McArthur: 60-Day IL (elbow), Bobby Witt Jr.: day-to-day (knee), Maikel Garcia: 10-Day IL (hand), Carlos Estevez: 60-Day IL (foot), Nick Mears: 15-Day IL (shoulder), Kris Bubic: 15-Day IL (elbow), Cole Ragans: 60-Day IL (elbow), Vinnie Pasquantino: 10-Day IL (hand), Kyle Isbel: 10-Day IL (foot), Jonathan India: 60-Day IL (shoulder), Alec Marsh: 60-Day IL (shoulder)
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.foxsports.com ’
